Street light systems are known. Traditional methods of monitoring and controlling streetlights are relatively simple. In order to determine that a streetlight is not operating correctly, municipalities typically depend on reports from the public or a maintenance crew. Streetlights are normally turned on at night under the control of a photosensor which may be located on the streetlight or nearby or via time based contactors. Billing for the energy consumption of a streetlight is typically based on the average expected power consumption of the streetlight and the expected number of hours the streetlight will operate based on the length of the night. Maintenance of a streetlight is limited to the replacement of lamps and/or other components on a scheduled basis or when a failure is observed.
Streetlights form a major load for an electrical distribution system; especially in urban areas. It is challenging for the utility companies to bill their clients for the streetlights connected to their services. This is due to the fact that streetlights are not generally metered as are most other loads in the distribution system and thus estimates of power consumption are often used for billing purposes. Due to the diverse types of ballasts and lamps deployed, the fact that wide variations from nominal power consumption for a given type of ballast and lamp are possible, along with unpredictable line conditions and lack of actual data from different sites; power consumption estimations for streetlight plants or systems are often inaccurate. Basically billing systems currently use a standard metering mechanism which does not account for such variations. The current system of billing assumes an input power consumption for each luminaire, and it estimates the transition times based on the length of an average night and the average ballast. The inability of the current system to provide or use realistic data regarding power consumption for streetlights is affecting both the clients (cities, municipalities, etc.) and the utility companies in an adverse manner.